Why did Muawiya decide to make all these moves to consolidate his power?
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Muawiyah and his father Abu Sufyan had opposed Muhammad, their distant Qurayshite kinsman, until the latter captured Mecca in 630, after which Muawiyah became one of Muhammad's scribes. He was appointed by Caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) the commander of the vanguard of his brother Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan's army during the conquest of Syria and he moved up the ranks until becoming governor of Syria during the reign of Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656). He allied with the province's powerful Banu Kalb tribe, developed the defenses of its coastal cities and directed the war efforts against the Byzantine Empire, including the first Muslim naval campaigns. After Uthman's assassination in 656, Muawiyah took up the cause of avenging the caliph and opposed his successor, Ali. During the First Muslim Civil War, the two led their armies to a stalemate at the Battle of Siffin in 657, prompting an abortive series of arbitration talks to settle the war. Afterward, Muawiyah gained recognition as caliph by his Syrian supporters and his ally Amr ibn al-As, who conquered Egypt from Ali's governor in 658. After the assassination of Ali in 661, Muawiyah compelled his son and successor Hasan to abdicate in Kufa and Muawiyah's suzerainty was acknowledged throughout the Caliphate.
Domestically, Muawiyah relied on loyalist Syrian tribes and Syria's Christian-dominated bureaucracy. He is credited with establishing government departments responsible for the postal route, correspondences and chancellery. Externally, he engaged his troops in almost yearly land and sea raids against the Byzantines, including a failed siege of Constantinople, though the tide turned against the Arabs toward the end of his reign and he sued for a truce. In the provinces of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate, he delegated authority to the powerful governors al-Mughira and Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan, the latter of whom he controversially adopted as his brother. Ziyad restarted the eastward Arab conquests in Khurasan and Sijistan and reformed Iraq's army and tax administrations. Under Muawiyah's direction, the Muslim conquest of Ifriqiya (central North Africa) was launched by the commander Uqba ibn Nafi in 670. Although Muawiyah confined the influence of his Umayyad clan to the governorship of Medina, he nominated his own son, Yazid I, as his successor. It was an unprecedented move in Islamic politics and opposition to it by prominent Muslim leaders, including Ali's son Husayn and Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, persisted after Muawiyah's death, culminating with the outbreak of the Second Muslim Civil War.